Listening at Christmas
Worship at LaGrave Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich.
LaGrave Avenue CRC
One of my best Christmas memories is from my first year in college, when I was part of the Calvin College Campus Choir’s Lessons and Carols service.
It was only the second year that the Campus Choir was participating in this type of event. While the tradition began in 1918 at King’s College (Cambridge, England), it was just beginning at Calvin College. For me, the experience brought a discovery not unlike that of an explorer turning a corner and finding a panorama of sky and sea that could only have been sketched by God.
The processional song was “Once in Royal David’s City.” It started a cappella with a soloist. Eventually the full choir joined in, and the resounding organ at LaGrave Avenue CRC, Grand Rapids, Mich. provided the juxtaposition of the carol: “He was little, weak, and helpless . . . for that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above.”
The sound, the lyrics, and the whole experience spoke to me about God’s great gift of Christmas and has stayed with me ever since.
Worship and music have a way of filling our senses to overflowing on certain occasions. Through them, we can understand a bit better how the Spirit is seeking to fill us to overflowing with God’s gracious goodness because of the gift of his Son, Jesus.
This year, as we celebrate Christmas in churches across the continent and beyond, and in homes filled with family and friends, let’s remember to be open to God, who speaks to us in more than one way.
May we listen, as he comes to us through reading the words of Scripture. May we hear biblical truths sung by choirs. May we experience the caring touch of a parent, child, or friend and feel God’s presence. And may we remember his love and sacrifice as we taste the bread and wine in remembrance of him. “Tears and smiles like us he knew.”
Not just at this time of Christmas, but throughout the new year may we each be ready for all the ways God comes to us, remembering he has already come in “a lowly cattle shed,” and will come again when “our eyes at last shall see him.”
Thanks be to God!
